It is an alternate 1984. The Novas, a group of New Wave musicians who escaped from an experimental Simulation, are fighting to bring down the Company that controlled them.
Novas 2: Solid State Revolution
Act 1: System
01 Helicopters – Solid State Logic (1981, New Zealand) JACK
You ask me where I've been, somewhere inside a dream
Connection's made, I fade away
You plug into the board and hear the overlord
The sparks fly to and fro until your circuits overflow
Solid state logic, don't try to dodge it
(Plug me in, turn me on)
Solid state logic, modular magic
(Tuning on the smile on your dial)
Connect me, connect me, connect me, connect me
You're strung out on the Grid, Pandora lifts the lid
The circuit breakers melt away
The only thing you need is an extension lead
All your tomorrows come today
Solid state logic, don't try to dodge it
(Plug me in, turn me on)
Solid state logic, modular magic
(Tuning on the smile on your dial)
Connect me, connect me, connect me, connect me
Power
Humming down the wires
Projecting all your dreams
Transforming all your energies
Until at least you see
Solid state logic, don't try to dodge it
(Plug me in, turn me on)
Solid state logic, modular magic
(Tuning on the smile on your dial)
Electric computer, into the future
(Plug me in, turn me on)
Electric connection in every direction
(Tuning on the smile on your dial)
Jack hacks into Astradyne’s corporate AI SYSTEM from a secret hideout. He is putting himself at great risk by doing this.
Isn’t that such an amazing little song for 1981? The cyberspace concept had been stewing in the New Wave collective unconscious for a while. William Gibson’s ‘Burning Chrome’ was first published in July 1982.
02 Depeche Mode – New Life (1981, England) JACK
I stand still stepping on a shady street
And I watch that man to a stranger
Think you only know me when you turn on the light
Now the room is lit red, danger
Complicating, circulating
New life, new life
Operating, generating
New life, new life
Transition to another place
Where the time will place more slowly
Your features fuse and your shadow's red
Like a film I've seen, now show me
Complicating, circulating
New life, new life
Operating, generating
New life, new life
Your face is hidden and we're out of sight
And the road just leads to nowhere
The stranger in the door is the same as before
So the question answer's nowhere
Jack logs out of SYSTEM. He seems to have become estranged from Susan and from the other Novas. He watches them from a distance.
The synth arpeggios of the Machine Theme follow us here.
03 Propaganda – p:Machinery (1985, Germany) SYSTEM and the ASTRADYNE CHORUS
Motor
Power, force, motion, drive
Propaganda!
On joyless lanes we walk in lines
A calm but steady flow
Accompanied by loud commands
Our strength is running low
Another hope feeds another dream
another truth installed by the machine
A secret wish the marrying of lies
today comes true what common sense denies
Rotating wheels of destiny inflame the city lights
Machines call out for followers far out into the night
The calls of the machines drowning in the steam
Another hope feeds another dream
another truth installed by the machine
A secret wish the marrying of lies
today makes true what common sense denies
We get a sense of the power of Astradyne and SYSTEM, which through its artificial intelligence technology now has control over major parts of the world media and economy.
That’s definitely the James Bond theme, isn’t it? I would almost suspect that this might have been a rejected theme for A View To A Kill (also 1985), which ultimately went with Duran Duran. But why a German band? Well, Trevor Horn (of Buggles) was the producer. Which is why it sounds so very Trevor Horn-ish.
04 Fay Ray – Different Morning (1982, Wales) SUSAN
I live in a country where the cold and bleak winds blow
Storm clouds are gathering, sometimes I wish I didn't know
We've been building a castle to protect us from the fight
And castle walls will never, never, never keep us safe at night
Warning warning, can't you hear it?
Leave your dreaming yesterday
This is a different morning
And we've got to break away
Warning warning, can't you hear it?
Leave your dreaming yesterday
This is a different morning
Watch the future slip away
Something is changing, look at everyone you meet
Down in the city they're counting numbers in the street
A thousand empty eyes looking for trouble in the heat
Susan performs. We see the state of the City, the real world now, not the Simulation. Things are much dirtier. There is mass unemployment and mass protests. A fascist-populist movement as well as a democratic movement are fighting for control of the streets.
Jack reintroduces himself to the Novas. Susan is reserved. She doesn’t trust him
Oh man, this song. And this video. Sheila McCartney’s voice. This is the essence of the best kind of punk to me. Melodic yet desperate. And terribly relevant to the 2010s. Why did Thatcherism come back? Why? How? What kind of people just cold-bloodedly kill libraries, of all things? Is there anything left of the future to save?
I only knew Fay Ray because of Heatwave (which I found a way to smuggle into Novas 4) but Youtube brought me this. And now it’s their song I love the best.
05 Modern English – Someone’s Calling (1982, England) JACK
Turning round as if in flight
I sense your breath cut like a knife
A thousand shadows all in pain
What they fear must be the same
The tension's mounting with the tide
I see the heat rise to the sky
I search the faces for a clue
A thousand hates, some laughter too
I start to think, I start to cry
The choice is always mine
But I'm too scared to judge
Someone's calling in the night
The flames were dancing as the people shouted
The streets they were alive as the stage was mounted
A thousand cries of jubilation
From the throes of this great people's nation
And as our bridges burned to dust
A useless theme was quite enough
I felt as you, one with the night
Someone's calling in the night
Jack seems to be hanging out with the neofascist populist movement. What’s going on with him?
More Modern English, from the same album as After The Snow.
06 Anthony Moore – World Service (1981, England) AN AGENT
Crisis in the night, no lighting in the ballroom
Voices come and go, talking Michelangelo
Down in the forest the insect kingdom gathers
Creatures getting restless, trouble in the night
Waiting for the monsoon, no lighting in the ballroom
Hot repetition, no signals chime
Feeble reception, couldn't get the Mean Time
Blood-flecked voices, distortion and gain
Static interference, short wave brain
Waiting for the monsoon, no lighting in the ballroom
Figures at the window, figures at the dial
Shaking with malaria, nothing could be scarier
World Service, stepping up the broadpass
Letter perfect English, letters to the listener
Aimed at the Third World states
Collecting on the corners, starved of statistics
Waiting for the monsoon, no lighting in the ballroom
Finger in the sky, they're jamming all the airwaves
Searching for the traitor who blew the generator
Oh mother, couldn't find a candle
Man this station, it's just too hot to handle
Waiting for the monsoon, no lighting in the ballroom
Revolution is spreading across the world, but its motives and backers are unclear.
A bit of a British musical genius, Anthony Moore has been making strange sounds for a while.
07 Ann Steel, Roberto Cacciapaglia – Media (1980, Italy) SYSTEM and the ASTRADYNE CHORUS
(media, media, media, media)
From far away I see a gleaming satellite
? the sounds I go for a ride
I'm glad the tones and melodies get to me night and day
Though far away, though far away, though far away
A glamour show unfolds within my daily life
As soon as I switch on the stereo voice
They say their heroes are the stars with always shining eyes
I wonder why, I wonder why, I wonder why
(media, media, media, media)
Stereo boys, media brides
A thousand bands record in greying studios
While you relax and tune them in on radio
The ether records surf their waves that blink and glow
They play for you, they play for you, they play for you
Metropolis have neon days and movie nights
Their windows glow with plaintive TV lights
And if you listen you can hear there's a new sound
The world around, the world around
Wonderful media, magic media
Susan and the Novas finally discover the influence of the Company behind the Simulation system and the extent of their plans.
The Ann Steel album – a weird kind of Italo Disco / New Wave art-music coproduction – has apparently had a huge cult influence on club music, and no wonder. It’s probably the best example of the Venn Diagram intersect between those two 70s-80s subgenres.
08 Strange Cargo – Have A Nice Day (1982, England) SYSTEM and JACK
Security, Mike Cochrane
Hello?
I am the agent who's tapping your phone
Please remember that when you hear the dialling tone
I am the agent who's tapping your phone
Isn't it consoling to know you're not alone?
Have a nice day now
Hello? Hello?
We are the agents tapping your phone
Please remember that when you hear the dialling tone
We are the agents tapping your phone
Isn't it consoling to know you're not alone?
Have a nice day now
Jack is having a conversation with himself in the mirror. It’s really not clear who he is anymore, let alone whose side he’s on.
Discogs says that Strange Cargo was Mike Ratledge and Karl Jenkins from Soft Machine.